Question NW162 to the Minister of Basic Education to ask the Minister of Basic Education

Reply:

The release of the NSC results has been moved to the third week of January, due to the late closure of the academic year in the last three years. In the last three years, schools have closed around 15 December, so as to allow for schools to catch-up on the loss of teaching time emanating from COVID-19.

The later release date was also prompted by the Quality Assurance Council, Umalusi, requesting additional time to conduct its quality assurance processes so that the accuracy and credibility of the results are not undermined.

The Department of Basic Education needs atleast six weeks from the last examination date to conduct the following critical processes:

(a) The marking of the 9.8 million scripts which uses schools as marking centres and therefore cannot commence long before schools have closed.

(b) The capture of the 15 million marks on the Integrated Examination Computer System (IECS) requires at least 14 days.

(c) The processing of examination irregularities.,

(d) The standardisation of the subject results by Umalusi.

(e) The processing, resulting of the candidate data and verification of the data by Umalusi.

(f) Preparation of reports for the Ministerial release

The later release date of the examination results was done in consultation with Universities South Africa (USAf), the body that represents all higher education institutions and therefore no candidate would have been disadvantaged by the later release date.

Attached is the 2022 NSC Management Plan, which provides the detailed activities and sub-activities and the time frame leading to the release of NSC Results.

For the 2023 NSC examinations, a meeting will be convened with Umalusi, USAf, Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the Provincial Education Departments (PEDs), so as to arrive at a release date that suits all institutions concerned, and also that is most suitable for candidates.